Commonwealth of Independent States |
A loose confederation of former Soviet republics established in December 1991 to coordinate interrepublican policies, especially military and economic affairs. Although the CIS originally included all the former Soviet republics, except for the Baltic republics and Georgia, subsequently other newly independent states of Eurasia, such as Moldova and Azerbaijan, have either declared their intention to withdraw or have formally withdrawn from the Commonwealth. |
First Secretary |
Highest leader in a Communist Party organization. Used in particular to denote the highest party/governmental figure of each of the former union republics of the Soviet Union. |
Glasnost |
Policy of openness and freedom of expression introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980's as part of his attempt tp reform the Communist system from within. |
Perestrioka |
Broadly used to denote Mikhail Gorbachev's policies in the 1980's for the restructuring and revitalization of Soviet society through limited political and economic reform. |
Politburo |
The highest and most powerful group of policymakers in the former Soviet Union, chosen from the membership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. |
RSFER(Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) |
Official name of the Russian Republic during the Soviet period, renamed the Russian Federation in 1991. |
Russian Congress of People's Deputies |
The highest legislative body of the Russian Federation elected in 1990. Because the allocation of seats in the Congress of People's Deputies was not syrictly by popular ballot, the standing Congress of People's Deputies reflects the disproportionate power of Communist party and other institutional representatives of the former Soviet Union. The standing Russian parliament, or Russian Supreme Soviet, is chosen from the ranks of this Congess of People's Deputies. In between sessions of the Congress, the Russian Supreme Soviet serves as a standing parliament. The Russian Congress of People's Deputies should not be confused with the All-Union Congress of People's Deputies that passed out of existence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. |
Soviet |
The word sovet in Russian means "council." The term first took on its twentieth-century political meaning during the 1905 Russian Revolution when "councils of workers' deputies (the Soviets) organized the events leading to a general strike in St. Petersburg in October of that year. Claiming the inheritance of these workers' councils, and calling their propaganda for "all power to the Soviets," the Bolshevif government employed the term Soviet as a integral part of the new states' name, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This term "Soviet" has also came to be used loosely as an objective referring to the Soviet Union. |
Supreme Soviet |
A term denoting the elected parliamentary or legislative body of former Soviet republics and their newlt independent Eurasian successors. the Russian Supreme Soviet, unlike its counterparts in other newlt independent states, is not elected directly, but is a regular standing parliament drawn from the elected Russian Congress of Peoples' Deputies. |